Let's just admit right up front what we're working with. Some brainless, unrealistic fun.

Key word: Fun.

"Footloose," the near verbatim remake - perhaps homage is a better word - of the buoyant '80s hit, won't leave anyone feeling enlightened or emotionally stirred.

But if you don't ask for anything more than it's offering, a feel-good flick about restless teens with uncanny dancing abilities, then you will leave the theater smiling.

It's the same plot as the original. Slick city kid Ren MacCormack, played by professional dancer and choreographer Kenny Wormald, comes to live with his aunt and uncle in a small Georgia farm town, where he discovers a baffling problem. The tightly wound city council has outlawed dancing.

Of course he goes about setting things right, along the way bonding with the rebellious reverend's daughter Ariel (Julianne Hough of "Dancing With the Stars") and befriending gentle rednecker Willard (Miles Teller).

There are some minor plot tweaks. Ren is given a little more back story, and is pressured into a game of chicken with school buses instead of tractors (I've been challenged on that before, but those were definitely tractors in the original, readers).

Just enough has been changed to improve the movie. Some scenes have rearranged and tightened up, so everything comes together a little cleaner.

Wormald probably doesn't have the acting career ahead that Kevin Bacon has enjoyed. But he is a better dancer than Bacon, plus he's a hunk, which all helps produce the fun I was talking about earlier.

I have to be kind to Julianne Hough, because she has relatives in Coeur d'Alene, and, more importantly, my boss has a little crush on her.

She actually does a great job as the troubled but adorable Ariel Moore. In the dramatic scenes Hough falls a little flat, but those are few anyway.

It's disappointing how little of Hough's dancing is featured. Everything she does in this movie you can see every Saturday night in clubs downtown.

Dennis Quaid takes over John Lithgow's role as Rev. Shaw Moore, Ariel's father and a city council member. He's warm and natural and fits it well.

Andie MacDowell is perfect for Ariel's mother Vi, previously played by Dianne West. But MacDowell says approximately three sentences in the movie, so the casting choice is kind of a waste.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Kim Dickens and Ray McKinnon playing Ren's aunt and uncle, both capable actors better known for their roles in the HBO series "Deadwood."

I'll caution dance-flick fans like myself that the dance scenes are actually few in this movie, and rather abrupt.

But who cares. When the drum starts pounding the beat to that song you hate to admit you love in the first seconds of the film, I dare you not to tap your foot. And smile.

Grade: B -

Alecia Warren is a reporter at The Press who has seen 'West Side Story' a time or 200. Email her at awarren@cdapress.com.